The Shinn's Big House - a second message from the past

You can't read the reprint online,
but you can read the original

This reprint of A.J. Downing's book was found in a box on a shelf in the basement. Was someone trying to figure out the architectural style of the Shinn House  in the 1980s?

This exploded a whole new world possibilities of "Who designed or inspired the Shinn House?" and "What or Who inspired the gardens?" What was James Shinn reading in the 1850-1860s?

Wikipedia says: "Victorian Cottage Residences"  is a reprint of "Cottage residences, or, A series of designs for rural cottages and cottage villas, and their gardens and grounds: adapted to North America" printed in 1842.

The Downing name is quite familiar to those who study the history of fruit in California. A.J. Downing and his brother, Charles Downing, wrote about pomology. Their 1857 book was The fruits and fruit trees of America; or, the culture, propagation, and management, in the garden and orchard, of fruit trees generally; with descriptions of all the finest varieties of fruit, native and foreign, cultivated in this country Perhaps James Shinn would have had a copy when setting up his new property in the Washington Township: 

The Shinns even had a close call of having Charles Downing visit in 1870. Charles Downing, brother of A.J., came to California in 1870 with Marshal P. Wilder, George Ellwanger andPatrick Barry. They stopped briefly in Niles to change trains. These were very esteemed East Coast horticulturalists who came to see what was happening here.

A.J. Downing has a fairly nice wikipedia page with works on the Internet Archive.

Charles Shinn wrote for several journals prior to 1878. Perhaps these journals were in the Shinn household for ideas. Charles was given an introduction in the 1878 California horticulturalist and Floral Magazine. "Mr. Shinn is a young man of much literary promise, who has contributed horticultural articles to the Evening Bulletin, Rural Press, our own journal, the Southern California Horticulturist, the Gardener's Monthly (Philadelphia), Vick's Monthly (Rochester, NY), the Rural New Yorker, and The Garden of London. His work has all been of a fresh and yet practical type, and has been widely read and copied.”

James Shinn is quoted in the PRP